I am a serial entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience launching successful companies, including GetLoaded.com, a freight matching service for long-haul truckers that revolutionized the transportation sector. As a business owner and investor, I have financial interests in more than 30 companies which span a variety of industries, including transportation, technology, entertainment, real estate, energy, insurance, and mobile applications. I believe it's important for professionals to be strong community stewards and serve as mentors for the next generation of entrepreneurs. From Richmond, VA, I'm also active in philanthropic efforts throughout the United States and across the world. Want to connect? Leave comments here and find me online.

What Picasso Teaches Us about Differentiation

Pablo Picasso is rumored to have said that good artists borrow, but great artists steal.

The same could be said about the ideas that have started many a successful company. The seed of an idea, company, product, or service often has been taken from one industry and applied to another.

Now, of course I’m not encouraging anyone to actually steal, but that quote offers guidance for entrepreneurs. The ability to understand what is missing in an industry and what can be applied from elsewhere to fill that void requires creativity. It also forces an entrepreneur to understand how he or she will differentiate a product/service.

Differentiation is key because you won’t be able to capture any market share if you’re simply copying what someone is already doing. Consumers and clients have choices and they’ll almost always choose what they know unless someone offers them a valid alternative.

So, how do you figure out that alternative?

I’ve got three tips that help me.

First, take a look at other successful enterprises and products. What worked for them and why? See what people are doing in other industries and try to identify how that could be applied to your target market.

One of my companies, Scoop Monkey, is an example of this approach. I saw reputation sites and online reputation management services for a variety of professionals, but nothing geared specifically for the trucking industry. So I created something tailored to this group.

Second, take a look around you. What’s missing in your industry or field? Is there something lacking that you can provide? What part of the customer experience can you improve?

Angie’s List is a good example. Review sites had existed for quite some time, but it was hard to know if you could trust the reviews. Angie’s List creates a space where companies can’t pay for reviews and where people can’t review anonymously, infusing trust into online reviews. The company saw that the trust was missing and found a way to add it.

Third, sometimes you just have to wing it. Really. If you understand your industry, trust yourself and your gut. It won’t be a success every time, but sometimes you need to have faith in your instinct when trying to differentiate your company and market it.

Even though you’re often looking elsewhere for inspiration, you must be creative about it. You need to understand what’s missing in a particular market or how something that works in one industry can be applied to another industry. There’s creativity there and that’s where value can be created.

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Nice article Patrick and I agree wholeheartedly with the concept of Differentiation. Nothing else really matters when it comes to putting space between you and your competitors.

When I asked “What makes your organization different from the competition” most CEO’s will start down the well worn path of “It’s our Customer Service, or We have the best people, or We’ve been around longer… Blah Blah Blah.

The gap between competitors is so narrow now that if your differentiator it not authentic, ingrained and in your language every day, it’s not going to deliver longterm results.